Has Covid Vaccination Drive Slowed Down?

With the rise in Covid cases, especially in two States — Kerala and Maharashtra, the question everybody is asking: Has the vaccination drive slowed down? Is it because of a glitch in CoWin App? The cynics were asking whether the vaccination drive was kept on hold to deliver it in the poll-bound States. Till date, 1,14,24,094 vaccine doses have been administered to 75,40,602 healthcare workers and 38,83,492 frontline workers through 2,44,071 sessions. The government which was silently working on the issue gave its answer saying that that vaccines for senior citizens above 60 years and those above 45 years with co-morbidities will be vaccinated across 30,000 centres across the country from 1^st March. Effectively government is targeting to touch nearly 1 million people per day.  It is working on the supply side too. Currently, the Serum Institute Of India’s Covishield, and Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin are being administered. Dr Reddy’s Laboratories have sought emergency use authorization of Sputnik V developed by Russia. And the fourth vaccine, which everybody is eagerly awaiting is ZyCov-D developed by the Ahmedabad-based Zydus Cadila. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had visited this plant sometimes back. According to newspaper reports, Zydus is currently conducting phase 3 clinical trials and will make public its finding.